Offshore wind turbines are built like giant modular puzzles at sea

Wind energy is categorized into land-based, distributed, and offshore types

Distributed wind turbines efficiently serve on-site energy needs, while land-based turbines are large and generate cost-competitive electricity. Offshore wind turbines capture powerful winds above the ocean and may be pounded into the seafloor using pile drivers or built to float above water at scales larger than the Statue of Liberty.

Wind turbines explained

Wind turbines have powered homes since 1887, and today they’re stronger, quieter, and more reliable than ever. Offshore wind could power millions and grow fast enough to meet climate goals.

For the same cost, turbines with three blades are the most resilient

Odd-numbered blade values more evenly distribute wind loads across the face of rotors, reducing bending and twisting forces on the turbine that cause wear. Modeling shows that three blades optimize efficiency and cost for everyday wind speeds.

Technological advancements will make future wind turbines more efficient and quieter

Manufacturing larger, more powerful turbines will result in future wind farms requiring fewer of them to meet energy demands. Larger turbines will meet these demands while rotating at lower speeds, reducing risks to avian wildlife.

Explore an interactive graphic of a wind turbine's components

Wind turbines contain a gearbox that increases the rotation of the blades by a factor of 100 from low to high-speed shafts. The latter moves magnets that change the magnetic field within a generator, creating electricity.

From 1990 to 2020, wind turbine height and blade length have more than tripled

Wind turbines' energy generation capacity—or maximum power rating—also increased by 375% from 1998 to 2023. As of that year, wind turbines can produce more energy per dollar than solar panels, though transportation and installation challenges remain.

Fiberglass and epoxy resin on blades complicate the recycling of wind turbines

Between 85 and 95% of a turbine's materials—except for the blades—can be recycled. Blades have been left in landfills when not repurposed into playgrounds and sheds, but new processes may allow them to be made into pellets for injection plastics and concrete.

Carbon-neutral data centers may be possible if built within wind turbines

Wind turbine towers are typically hollow, housing only cables and a ladder for maintenance access. The excess electricity a wind turbine collects could power a stack of server racks more than 100 meters (328 feet) high within its tower.

Engineering tall structures requires managing wind, earthquakes, and other destabilizing factors

Reinforced concrete, energy dampers, braced frames, flexible structures, and aerodynamic decks were among the methods implemented when building structures such as the Shanghai Tower, the Texas Super Skyscraper, and the South Rangitīkei Viaduct.

Maintenance, curtailment, congestion, and wind speed can park a wind turbine

Wind turbines are optimized to operate at wind speeds between about 10 and 80 kph, but an internal brake stops them if energy is not required. Routine preventative maintenance and cleaning also prevent blades from rotating.

Wind farms are targets for conspiracy theories due to their visibility and complexity

The proliferation of misinformation and conspiracy theories surrounding wind farms is driven by deep-seated anxieties about change, distrust of government, and resistance to confronting the complexities of modern energy solutions.

As of 2025, wave power projects remain in early research and testing phases

Waves can become a steady source of renewable energy because they do not pause like wind and solar power do. However, funding gaps and the effects of storms, salt exposure, and biofouling—mussels and other sea creatures attaching to wave machines—have presented challenges in scaling the technology beyond testing sites.

The carbon footprint of manufacturing a wind turbine is offset within seven months

Despite initial carbon emissions during manufacturing, wind turbines generate nearly zero pollution across their 20- to 25-year lifetimes. Offsets occur when turbines replace energy generation from coal and natural gas plants, which emit carbon dioxide.

Find out how decommissioned oil rigs can be repurposed into artificial reefs

A 2014 paper analyzing drilling structures found many had become nursery habitats for fish, corals, sponges, and other invertebrates in the decades since their installation. Oil companies responsible for bringing these rigs to shore to salvage them can more affordably transport only the oil rig's deck on a barge, leaving the remaining rig to maintain the established biodiversity.

See technicians use rappelling gear to make wind turbine repairs from 35+ stories up

Although drones are used to conduct initial reviews from the ground, mechanical engineers trained in turbine maintenance face extreme risks during close inspections more than 150 meters off the ground.

Modular data centers can be transported on a truck for rapid deployment

Bypassing the complications involved in building larger facilities over the course of several years, such as construction costs and permits, these pre-fabricated, self-contained pods, roughly the size of shipping containers, can carry thousands of graphics processing units for small- and medium-scale AI-related tasks.

Hurricane conditions are created in a University of Miami wind-wave tank

The SUrge-STructure-Atmosphere INteraction Wind Wave Laboratory contains a 38,000-gallon wave pool connected to a wind tunnel that can generate air currents of up to 155 mph. SUSTAIN allows scientists to study how the atmosphere interacts with the ocean in extreme weather.

View a gallery of whimsical transmission tower designs from around the world

Despite their importance to the functioning of the electric grid, these structures are often considered aesthetically unpleasant. To remedy this, some have been transformed into art installations featuring stained glass and colorful lighting, or built with whimsical designs, such as clown faces or giant bodies.

The floating homes of Holland

Floating communities like Schoonschip in Amsterdam are offering a novel approach to combat climate change-induced flooding. With sea levels rising and storms becoming more intense, these floating neighborhoods are providing a sustainable flood defense solution. Learn how they work here.

Watch how deep-sea mining equipment collects and processes polymetallic nodules—metal-rich, potato-shaped rocks—from the ocean floor and creates environmentally damaging plumes of sediments.

Solar panel manufacturing begins with silicon extracted from sand

The silicon is purified and shaped into wafers less than 0.2 millimeters thick, coated and connected through a criss-cross pattern of narrow and wider metal, followed by multiple rounds of lamination before bonding to a weatherproof panel.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

A submarine canyon helps produce the biggest ocean waves in the world

Off the shores of Nazaré, Portugal, the canyon is nearly three times as deep as the Grand Canyon in places. This creates a rare convergence of fast and slow swells that erupt into towering walls of water over 100 feet high.

Massive 3D printers have been used to build homes by stacking layers of 'concrete toothpaste,' a fire-resistant material that effectively insulates against outside noise.

Explore a gallery of O'Neill cylinder space settlements

The structures consist of a pair of cylinders with a total enclosed land area of 500 square miles and can house several million people. Each is approximately 20 miles long, 4 miles in diameter, and contains three mirrors that open and close to form a day-night cycle inside.

Mid-ocean ridges are underwater volcano systems where tectonic plates diverge

New ocean crust is formed at these ridges as magma rises from Earth’s mantle and fills the space between the spreading plates. The speed of divergence influences ridge shape, with slow spreads forming rugged valleys and fast spreading creating smooth, wide slopes.

The animatronic shark from 'Jaws' was a complex machine called 'Bruce'

Affectionately named after Spielberg's lawyer, the elaborate underwater apparatus used to portray the shark in the film was constructed by Robert A. Mattey. He had previously constructed a giant squid for "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea," a film Spielberg loved as a child.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

Learn about the construction of the undersea fiber optic cables carrying internet data

Over 750,000 miles of fiber-optic cables run along the seafloor, serving as a freeway for the Internet's data. Despite subsea cable projects costing hundreds of millions of dollars, depending on the length of the cable, it remains the fastest and most cost-effective way to send information.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

Corals are themselves not coral reefs—the term refers to the tiny marine invertebrates that build the rigid reef.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

Planarian flatworms are small, aquatic worms with exceptional regenerative capabilities. When cut, the worms can regenerate multiple bodies in a matter of weeks.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

About 2,000 US babies are born annually without some portion of their limbs, potentially leading to a lifetime of pricey prosthetics.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Sony set the standard for cylinder-shaped batteries when it repurposed manufacturing equipment used to make rolls of magnetic recording tape.

Larger animals like giraffes, elephants, and blue whales have developed a unique defense against cancer, a phenomenon known as Peto's Paradox

While atoms are normally made of protons, neutrons, and electrons, exotic ones have been built with antimatter—alternate versions of normal matter that live for fractions of a second and are about a billion times as rare.

The first image of a black hole was captured by creating an Earth-sized virtual observatory from a network of eight radio telescopes.

Explore fun facts from the USPS, including unique post office buildings, a stamp that traveled past Pluto, and more.

The syncytiotrophoblast is the outer layer of the placenta and the largest human cell, spanning an area about twice that of a king-sized bedsheet.

To reduce wrinkles in clothing, research recommends gentle wash cycles with more water and tumble drying with smaller loads and longer times.

For centuries, it was common to sleep in two shifts: a few hours at the beginning of the night, and a longer period beginning around midnight